TBI Study Questions Effectiveness of Progesterone

Progesterone, long regarded as a reliable treatment for traumatic brain injury (TBI), and regularly administered to patients with such conditions, may not be as effective in treating the injury as earlier believed.

According to the results of a new study that was published recently in The New England Journal of Medicine, when the drug was administered over a period of five days after patients suffered a traumatic brain injury, there was no significant improvement in the clinical outcomes of the patients.

In the trial, researchers monitored 1,195 patients between 16 and 17 years of age. The patients suffered from TBI, and were divided into two groups randomly. One group received progesterone, while the other was placed on a placebo. The patients received the progesterone within eight hours after suffering the injury. The treatment continued over 120 hours.

The researchers found that there was no significant change in the patients’ clinical outcomes after being administered progesterone.

The results of progesterone therapy were measured using the Glasgow Outcome scale, and indicated that just over 50% of patients had good recovery or moderate disability after treatment. In comparison, 50% of the patients who were placed on the placebo had similar results.

This only seems to confirm the difficulty in treating a patient with a traumatic brain injury. TBI can be of various types, and can affect different people in different ways. There are long-term consequences of the disease that are only now coming to light.
Therefore, persons who have suffered a traumatic brain injury must immediately begin to work on filing a claim for disability benefits, especially when consequences of the injury prevent them from going to work and earning a living.